Friday Primal Dinner and Mystery on the Homestead

 

Well, first dinner...sorry no pic tonight. I made a Roasted Cauliflower and Broccoli soup and Stuffed Pork Chops. I made the soup last night, took a little time but was really easy, had a small bowl last night for dinner and let the soup blend overnight...was even better tonight. So, when I decide on a dinner I often figure out one type of food I want to fix and then try to make them work together. I had cauliflower and broccoli that had to be used, so found a simple soup recipe and the rest was put in the freezer. I also had boneless porkchops that I thought would be good for tonight. So, I decided to add some blue cheese to the top of the soup, the parmesan was good but I thought the blue cheese would add a good contrast. I figured i could stff the porkchops so I mixed some of the blue cheese with some roasted garlic (also in the soup) and some sage, 'cause sage is just awesome! It all came out well and I enjoyed...the rest of the soup is in the freezer for another meal. The recipes are below.

Now for the mystery. This morning as I was feeding eveeryone I found Mr. Royal (the Royal Palm turkey tom) in the pen with Mr. Buff and big tom...they were not happy with eachother but I didn't have time to deal with. I figured maybe he got out and my brothers put him in there the night before (though they know he doesn't get along with the other toms so was curious). When I got home tonight I found out that my brothers did not put him in there and that he was there last night when they got home around 10pm. Mr. Black was out all day yesterday and was still out this morning...I decided to let him free range for a little bit before chasing him down. Mr. Royal has always been the aggressive one and he is the reason I had to split everyone up in the first place. Well, it is dark when I get home from work so I fixed dinner then decided to make sure everyone is in bed. Oddly Mr. Royal was not in the coop with the turkeys or in hanging with the ducks...after searching with the flashlight I finally found him hunched up in the far corner of the pen and I finally got him to hobble out...he has a bruised leg and a bloody face. Apparently he isn't king of the mountain anymore. As much of a pain he is I felt bad for him. He let me wal in the pen and pick him up. I brought him in the house, checked him out and made sure there were no injuries I needed to take care of and then put him in the small pen where I put Mr. Black this morning. *shakes head* If it isn't one thing it is another! Hopefully everyone behaves until I can work on the pens tomorrow and sort everyone out!
I still haven't a clue how Mr. Black remained roaming around while Mr. Royal escaped the front pen and ended up in the big pen???

And now the recipes if anyone wants them.

Roasted Broccoli and Cauliflower Soup (original found online and adapted - original had a lot more stock, I like a thicker soup)

1 head of local broccoli
1 head of local cauliflower
1 bulb roasted garlic
olive oil
1 large onion
butter
2 quarts home made chicken stock
paprika, salt and pepper


1. chop broccoli and cauliflower florets and put in roasting pan with , drizzle with olive oil, paprika, pepper and salt.
2. roast at 400F for about half hour or until tender (flip if browning too much)
3. carmelize one sliced onion (slice onion, saute in butter until golden)
4. place roasted vegetables and carmelized onion (don't forget bits scraped from pan) with chicken stock into blender in batches (I actually put in food processer first but it didn't make it smooth enough so then put in blender)
5. put all in pot and simmer to blend flavors.
6. enjoy as is, with parmesan cheese, blue cheese like I did or yogurt or sourcream (might try next)

Blue Cheese, Roasted Garlic, Sage Stuffed Pork chops

1. mix blue cheese, roasted garlic and chopped sage
2. make pocket in boneless porkchops
3. saute in olive oil on med high so the outside browns then turn down to make sure the chop is done through

Primal Tuesday: Venison, Rosemary Nut Bread and Sweet Potato Soup

Primal Tuesday: Venison, Rosemary Nut Bread and Sweet Potato Soup

This week's Primal Tuesday dinner is Venison tenderloins (very simply sauteed), Sweet Potato Soup with roasted garlic and a Rosemary Nut Bread (that was extremely filling!). It was all very good and pretty simple.

The soup was an adaptation from some recipes I found online. The bread was from this website, and I followed it pretty closely.

http://aliveandwellness.blogspot.com/2012/10/rosemary-and-olive-oil-bread-grain-free.html

The Sweet Potato Soup was actually made yesterday and I refrigerated enough for dinner tonight and froze the rest in meal size portions. This is how I made it:

I cut up and peeled about 4 sweet potatoes, thawed out about 4 cups of chicken stock (I like my soups a little thicker than the 6 or 8 cups I saw on a couple recipes), an onion and cut the tops off of 2 garlic bulbs (twice as much as called for in some recipes). The sweet potatoes, onion and garlic bulbs were placed in a baking pan, coated them in olive oil and roasted in the oven for about 1/2 hour at 425F until soft. The sweet potatoes, garlic and onion were added to the chicken stock in the food processor in batches and blended in a pot on low on the stove. It came out really good so I think I will make more.

And...Trollie food (my pug/boston for those who don't know) was left over ham, raw salmon, cottage cheese, egg, garlic, salmon oil vitamins and blood from the venison when thawed out. It was practically inhaled! She has gotten a bit picky since she has gone on a 90% raw diet but she is doing really well on it.